Happy 400th Blog Post-iversary Giveaway!!!!

 That's right.   This is the 400th post on this here blog!  It also happens to be the same week that we are doing renos in our condo and trying to find a storage solution for my stupidly large collection of games.  What does that mean for you?  Game giveaway!!!!

Yep, I'm offloading 16+ games which I'd be happy to send your way if I draw your name.  A few caveats, though:

1)  Shipping sucks lately.  If you live outside of Canada, I'd probably only send you a card game unless you want to pay the shipping yourself.  It'd probably be cheaper for me to just send you the money to buy the damn game yourself new then ship you a used copy.

2)  Don't expect it anytime soon, perhaps by Christmas....  If you're lucky....  Not only am I busy/lazy (as you can see from the lack of blog posts recently) but also refer to #1.

3)  Send me an email to 'domcontests@hotmail.com' with your name, country of residence, and the games that you'd be interested in in order of preference.  I'll draw names in order in a couple weeks using a random number generator.  If your name is drawn, I'll pick the game that's left that you want the most.  Unless it's Castle For All Seasons and you live in Antarctica.  Sorry, then you're SOL.

So here's the games and why I feel I can part with them:

Baker's Dozen - Basically a reprint of Knizia's filler Poison but with donuts.  I think I was hungry when I bought it because I don't like Poison.  Duh.

Fairy Tale - Great little card-drafting game but now that I have 7 Wonders I don't feel any need for it.

Ohne Furcht und Adel (Citadels) - I bought this when there was a only a German version.  Reading the translations is a bit of a chore.  Now that I've played the English version I'll never go back.

Quo Vadis - Never played it.  Not a huge negotiator. Sorry, Knizia.

Castle For All Seasons - Not bad but not feeling like I will play it again.  Great artwork.

Chaotic Connections - A copy I was sent to review.  Very light and unbalanced but some good ideas.  Yours if you want it.

Faux-cabulary - Kinda like Balderdash with word dice.  Bit too silly for our group.

Industria - Excellent Schacht auction game that again is all German.  Now that there is an English version I won't miss this.

Dao - Little abstract which was given to me.  Nice container, never played.

Miam - Impulse buy.  Turned out to be a simple set collection card game.  Probably excellent for a family.

Worm Up - I think this Alex Randolph game is silly fun but my friends refuse to play it.  Ah well. 

Skull & Roses - VERY simple bluffing game.  I think I prefer Liar's Dice.

Frank's Zoo - Excellent "climbing" card game of getting cards out of your hand before the others.   The neat thing is there are no numbers, only animals who beat other animals.  However, since I met Tichu, the best "climbing" game, this one has not been played since.

Lucca Citta - Card game.  (STOP BUYING GAMES YOU WON'T PLAY!  STOP!)

Can't Stop - Absolute classic from Sid Sackson, original push-your-luck dice game.  I want a new version.  You can have my old destroyed one that I found in a garage sale in '95.  That was a good day.

Risk - We now play Risk: Legacy.

7-in-1 Chess/Checkers/etc. set - Honestly I hate Chess and Checkers.  But I'm not shipping this one.  It's heavy and you could buy it in your local departments store for a 15 bucks.  If you're local to SW Ontario, let me know. 

First plays: Luna....

Stefan Feld is very hit or miss for me.  In The Year of The Dragon is a total masterpiece of simple, agonizing choices but I found Macao to be a cluttered mess that had a decision tree which expanded to infinity by the final rounds.  Lately it seems his game have gotten even more involved so I must admit I was a bit wary of Luna: In the Domain of the Moon Priestess.  One can only do a single action per turn but there are about 19 different actions one can take (I'm not actually kidding here).

I've now played a couple games, one solo learning game and now a game with the full capacity of 4 and my feelings are rather mixed.  On one hand the theme is unusual and rather lovely and the game feels very interactive and dynamic.  On the other hand, for a game that takes almost 90 minutes over 6 rounds, there is no story arc and little opportunity for any long-term strategy.  Despite the ridiculous number of options the gameplay is mainly tactical due to the fact that any workers you can get into the temple will most likely be kicked out later anyways.  One also has the option to build shrines which offer some bonuses but it seemed that every play built them when given the opportunity so there was little diversity in strategies.  For a game with such a learning curve, playing it still feels a bit shortsighted.

Still, I would probably play again if only to solidify my opinion now that I think I have some semblance of what the hell is going on.  Fun game, but I think not enough of a payoff for the amount of work involved.

Islands surrounding the temple

The path surrounding the island temple

Mater builder just chilling on the isle of waves



Ladies and Gentleman, these are your options....

Everyone wants to get with the Priestess!

Epic Settlers of Catan boards...

Found on the Settlers Facebook page  - 8- and 9-player Settlers games.  Epic.

(Although I feel like expansion and trading would be remarkably easy and a bit dull....)

Two more reasons why I love Days of Wonder...

This is mostly due to my somewhat unhealthy ongoing obsession with all things Ticket To Ride, one of the greatest board games ever made.  In any case, here they are:

1)  'Heart of Africa' expansion with new terrain cards that can increase the value of routes when claimed.  Yes, yes, please.

2)  A new set of orange Halloween-themed trains for no other reason than the sheer awesomeness of miniature freight cars bearing pumpkins.  Amazing.

The Blitz this past weekend...

On Saturday, I spent the day and evening involved in a board game blitz at a local pub.  I hadn't participated before but I really like the semi-competitive set-up.  There were 5 rounds of gaming and I got in some good games - Citadels, Ticket To Ride: Europe, Caylus, Can't Stop, and Egizia (which was new to me and I disliked mightily....  what a bloated mess!)  In most of the rounds, players got to choose what games they got to play in order of their current placement in the tournament starting with the lowest score and moving towards the highest, which seemed quite fair.

The upcoming dates for local Blitzes in Ontario are here.  If you're ever near one and have the afternoon free, you should try out it out.  A great way to meet new people, try out some new games, and maybe even win a prize.  I didn't place highly but I was still elated to win a draw for the 2-player tile game For The Win.  Seems appropriate.

Thanks again to GeekStop Games, Rumbletum Cafe, and Just by Chance Games for prizes.

Round 1 game options

Round 2-5 games in separate piles

Learning Havana

Dominion.  Of course.

Prize table!!!

Finished the night with a round of a prototype for Viticulture

EEEWWWWW!!!!!!!

What is wrong with this company????  Maybe I'm just not the demographic they're aiming for....



And I'm sorry, but my 120 lb. Italian Mastiff Cain keeps me busy enough picking up doggie doo.